Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 December 2014
179. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the position regarding the proposed transatlantic trade and investment partnership between the European Union and the United States; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48982/14]
View answerA total of seven rounds of negotiations have taken place to date, the most recent took place between 29 September - 3 October in the US. During a visit to Washington D.C. on 8 December 2014, EU Trade Commissioner Malmström met with US Trade Representative Froman to discuss a fresh start to the negotiations on a EU-US Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). They reviewed the state of play in all areas of the talks and agreed a number of practical steps to prepare the next round of talks which are scheduled to take place in Brussels during the week of 2 February 2015. These include meetings in January to prepare the February round. The following summarises each round:
First Round
The negotiations began formally in July, with the 1st round held in Washington in the week beginning 8 July 2013. The EU's initial position papers on a number of aspects of the negotiations were presented to the US negotiators during the first negotiating round and covered the following areas: Cross-cutting & institutional provisions on regulatory issues; Technical barriers to trade; Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (i.e. barriers to trade in food and agricultural products); Public procurement; Raw materials and energy; and Trade and sustainable development.
The feedback from the EU Commission following the first round was positive. The focus of the first round was on general scoping and exchange of information: market access issues for goods, services, investment, public procurement and rules of origin; regulatory issues of transparency and regulatory coherence, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary standards and sectoral regulatory issues; and others areas of regulation including intellectual property rights, energy, competition, customs and trade facilitation and sustainable development.
Second Round
The 2nd round, originally scheduled for the first week in October, but deferred at the request of the US because of the partial government shutdown, took place in Brussels during the week beginning 11 November, 2013. The EU presented further areas for negotiation to the US side including: Maritime; Air transport; Raw Materials; Energy; Rules of Origin; Market access for goods; Sectoral Regulation; regulatory cooperation in financial services; and cross cutting regulatory and institutional provisions.
The feedback from the 2nd round was again positive. Both sides reiterated that the TTIP was an opportunity to promote even further the trade flows between the two trading blocs and thus promote economic growth. There was also confirmation that regulatory aspects are one of the main elements of the TTIP negotiations, and that two basic principles govern the philosophy of the negotiations: nothing should prevent or undermine the rights of both sides to regulate, and the level of protection (environment, food or consumer safety etc.) will not be lessened.
Third Round
This round took place in Washington DC during the week commencing 16 December 2013. Both sides discussed all the topics they wanted to see covered in what is intended to be a comprehensive trade agreement. They brought together teams with expertise in a wide range of trade-related areas, as well as regulators from both sides. The EU and US teams also spent time talking to over 50 stakeholders and answering questions from them. This followed efforts by the EU to negotiate as openly as possible and reach out to the widest possible range of interests. Negotiators made progress on the three core parts of the TTIP – market access, regulatory aspects and rules, which were to be the focus for the round of talks expected in March 2014.
Stocktaking Summary
The end of the 3rd round marked the conclusion of the initial phase of negotiations and paved the way for EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and US Trade Representative Ambassador Michael Froman to hold a high level political stocktaking meeting that took place on 17 -18 February 2014. This provided a political overview of progress to date – addressing issues that are difficult such as the approach to regulatory convergence, development, and mutual recognition. The two day stocktake helped set the forward agenda that included the 4th round and importantly, trade aspects at the EU-US summit in Brussels in late March. Both sides agreed that after three rounds of talks the negotiations needed to step up a gear and gave guidance to negotiators on the way ahead.
Fourth Round
The 4th round took place in Brussels from 10 –14 March 2014, and all negotiating topics, except tariffs, were on the table. Services, Investment, Regulatory Coherence, Energy and Raw Materials, State-Owned Enterprises, Competition and Subsidies, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Dispute Settlement (state-to-state), IPR, Sustainable Development, Government Procurement, Market Access, SPS, TBT and Sectors were covered. The Commission used the opportunity of the EU-US Summit on 26 March 2014 to get a clear and unambiguous commitment from both sides as regards the level of ambition in this agreement in all areas. In principle, the Commission and the US agreed to have a similar stocktaking exercise just after the summer.
Fifth Round
The 5th round of the TTIP negotiations took place from 19 – 23 May 2014 in Arlington, Virginia. The overall assessment from the Commission on progress achieved during the 5th round was positive, and suggested that both sides were now commencing the detailed work phase.
Close to 25 different negotiating areas were covered in this round. In the regulatory cluster, reasonable progress was made in technical preparatory work in sectors and improvement in the dynamics of the regulatory coherence discussion. There was agreement to prepare SPS text for the next round in mid-July. On market access, there was no discussion on tariffs except for some clarification on the first tariff offers. Procurement discussions confirmed a wide difference of position about coverage of an initial offer on central level procurement. On rules, there was discussion on sustainable development.
As in the previous round, a lot of time was dedicated to stakeholder consultation, and over 300 stakeholders representing different interest groups participated in these sessions. The Stakeholders who represent a broad cross section of interest groups had the opportunity to present their concerns and give feedback directly to the TTIP negotiators.
Sixth Round
The 6th round of the TTIP negotiations took place in Brussels from 14 – 18 July 2014 where all pillars and chapters of the TTIP were discussed. Close to 25 different negotiating areas were covered in this round with the exception of ISDS and investment protection, tariffs and financial services. The Commission reported that while there were no breakthroughs, progress was achieved on the essential technical work. It was reported that the dynamic in the negotiations was clearly influenced by the US mid-term elections in November.
On tariffs both sides had already had necessary clarificatory discussions in previous rounds and at that stage no further discussions were considered necessary at a technical level. The respective services/investment offers which have been tabled by both sides were discussed in detail while discussions on financial services were paused for further reflection. There were exploratory first discussions on the area of mutual recognition of professional qualifications. On the regulatory cluster there were discussions with good progress reported across most sectors although significant technical work remains to be done. On sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues both sides agreed to table texts before the 7th round. Good discussions were reported on sustainable development and on the labour and environment areas. There were also good discussions on energy and raw materials and on geographical indicators (GIs).
Both sides agreed to move forward and to work on preparing consolidated texts in the areas of State Owned Enterprises, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Rules of Origin and Telecom Services and these texts will be made available to Member States through the reading room.
Seventh Round
The 7th round took place from 29 September - 3 October 2014 in the US, where discussions were productive, and moving into negotiations based on specific textual proposals in some areas.
During this round, much of the focus was on the regulatory pillar of the future agreement. All of the regulatory elements of TTIP were discussed, both in terms of horizontal disciplines (regulatory coherence, TBT, SPS) as well as on specific sectors identified in previous rounds such as pharmaceuticals, cars, chemicals or engineering.
On sectors, technical work made steady progress in identifying concrete outcomes that save unnecessary duplications while fully respecting the mandates of regulators on both sides. This work was very much being guided by the regulators. The regulatory part of TTIP has the potential to deliver the most benefits, but is also the most challenging part as it is highly technical and requires the most innovative thinking.
Three key considerations for negotiation discussions on the regulatory pillar concern standards, the strategic dimension, and compatibility. On Standards, the EU made a firm commitment that nothing will be done which could lower or endanger the protection of the environment, health, safety, consumers or any other public policy goals pursued by EU or US regulators. On the strategic dimension of these negotiations, enhanced regulatory cooperation is essential if the EU and US wish to play a leading role in developing international regulations and standards based on the highest levels of protection. Finally, TTIP should deliver concrete results in terms of enhanced regulatory compatibility.
Other elements discussed were elements of the rules pillar of the agreement, energy and raw materials, customs and trade facilitation, intellectual property rights (IPR), small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and services.
Prior to this round, both the US and the EU had put on the negotiating table their respective market access offers, and during this round negotiators devoted much of their time to explaining to each other, in detail, all the elements of the highly complex, and technical offers on Services. This is a key step as progress can only be made once each side has understood the scope of what the other has put on the table. The EU’s approach to services negotiations excludes any commitments on public services, and Member States remain free to decide at any time that certain services should be provided by the public sector.
The round also contained a day of stakeholder events, where the negotiators spent a full day engaging and exchanging views with representatives of civil society. These sessions with stakeholders have taken place during each negotiating round, and this time there were around 330 representatives of various interests and 64 presentations on all the areas covered by the negotiations.
